


An Early Thanksgiving Morning

by jooliewrites



Category: How to Get Away with Murder
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Kid Fic, M/M, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-26
Updated: 2014-11-26
Packaged: 2018-02-27 03:03:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2676581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jooliewrites/pseuds/jooliewrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver finds Connor giving their new son a lecture on the various family members who should be avoided at Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe they should pass on this year?</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Early Thanksgiving Morning

“And then there’s Uncle Bill. Not to be confused with Uncle Billy—you only make that mistake once,” Connor leaned over the crib to whisper to his son all of the very important information Charlie would need to survive his first Walsh Family Thanksgiving Extravaganza. “Now Uncle Bill works in banking…or finance…or something like that, I’m not really sure, but the point is that you have to remember to ask him about work at least once while we’re there. He’s going to just drone on and on about it and you aren’t going to understand a word of what he says but it makes him feel important. Uncle Bill has very little going on in is life so it’s nice to make him feel important. Now, Uncle Billy is—”

“What are you doing?” Oliver’s question startled him and Connor sheepishly looked over his shoulder.

“He was fussing,” Connor explained, gesturing to the monitor as Oliver walked over to stand next to him. “I fed him and then we walked for a little and he seemed like he was ready to go so I put him down. But then he got that look, like he was gonna start wailing again, so I thought we’d talk for a little.” His excuse was met with silence and the look Oliver passed him after gazing down to see that their son was sleeping peacefully practically screamed ‘Really Con?’ so Connor quickly went on. “I tried singing to him but he just sat up in and said ‘Dad, leaving any singing to other Dad. You sound like something dying’.”

“Con—”

“No. It’s true. He totally did. Our son is a prodigy.”

“Con—”

“I was going to wake you up so he could say it again for you but then he fell asleep and all the books say to not wake up a sleeping baby.”

“Connor.” Oliver finally cut him off with a smile. How, after all these years, could this man still make him laugh at the most inappropriate times? “I meant, why are you giving our son the same family rundown you gave me before you brought me home to meet your mother?”

“I wasn’t…” he began but trailed off when Oliver just raised an eyebrow at him. It was totally the same speech, practically word-for-word. “I just—I just wanted him to be prepared, you know? I wanted him ready for everything.”

“You do realize he’s only three weeks old?” Oliver asked with a teasing note in his voice but then wrapped an arm around Connor’s shoulder and another around his waist, pulling him close so they made one silhouette in the early dawn light spilling in through the blinds.

“I know. It’s just…” Connor trailed off again, searching for the right words. “We promised to take care of him. We promised to love him and teach him right and wrong and protect him from everything.” He gripped Oliver’s shirt in his hands and buried his face in Oliver’s chest. Why was it easier to explain all of this to Oliver’s chest rather than Oliver’s face? “I just don’t want them to hurt him.”

“Connor,” Oliver said as he reached to cradle Connor’s face in his hands. He rubbed a thumb over Connor’s cheekbone and kissed his forehead. “They aren’t going to hurt him. They will love him just like they love you. They haven’t been the best at showing it all these years but they do love you, you know.”

“I know but—” Of course Oliver was going to talk him into going. This whole thing was stupid. He knew they loved him. Of course they loved him. His family wasn’t going to hurt his son. The ridiculous urge he had to keep his son protected from them had been childish and petty. It was silly that he’d worked himself into a panic while thinking about bringing his son into that house and it was even more ridiculous that said panic had kept him up half the night. Thanksgiving with his family was going to be fine.

“Hey, let me finish.” Oliver pressed a gentle thumb to Connor’s lips. “They love you but if you don’t want to expose our son to them that’s fine.”

At that, Connor straightened out of Oliver’s embrace. What was Oliver talking about? You went to see family at the holidays. That was just what people did. Especially when you had kids. It was like a law or something. Okay, so he was a lawyer maybe it wasn’t a _law_ law but still it was most certainly what you did. “What do you mean ‘it’s fine’?”

“I mean it’s fine,” Oliver said. “You have always had control over how much we see your family. It’s not my place to dictate how much or when we see your relatives. If you don’t want us to see them, then we don’t have to see them. I’m fine with that.”

“But your family practically moved in that first week he was home?” It had been Connor’s own personal version of hell until Oliver had snapped at day four and kicked everyone out. In the nearly six years they’d been together, Connor had never been more in love with Oliver than he had been at that moment.

“And wasn’t that a fun first week?” Oliver asked, sarcasm dripping from his tone. “Look, my family is my family. As long as you’re okay with us seeing them, I want them in our lives and Charlie’s life. From a respectable distance at least.” Oliver gave a half-grin at that, trying to lighten the mood just a little. “But your family is yours. I don’t have any issue with seeing them and having Charlie know them but you get to set the when’s and how’s and who’s. If you feel so strongly about it that the idea of bringing Charlie over there causes you to give our three-week-old a lecture of who to keep an eye on and what topics of conversation to avoid maybe we should rethink going.”

Connor let himself mull that over for a moment as he gazed down at his son. He turned to reach down to adjust the baby blanket his sister had made for Charlie and let out a small sigh. “What would we even say?”

“We have a baby now. They come with a million, built-in excuses.” Oliver leaned his forearms against the side of the crib and they stood in silence for a moment watching the wonder that was their son.

“Mom’s going to be pissed,” Connor said as he reached down again to fuss with blankets that didn’t need fussing.

“I think she’ll understand.”

Connor nodded. His mother would understand. His immediate family wasn’t the problem. They had all come over already and were wonderful. It was all the aunts and uncles and cousins and everyone else he wanted to avoid. “Aunt Cheryl will make some snide comment about how we can’t handle it.”

“Well then it’s a good thing we won’t be there to hear it.” Oliver gently ran a hand over Charlie’s head in awe. How on Earth was this precious little person really theirs? “Plus I never liked Aunt Cheryl.”

“You know? I never really liked Aunt Cheryl either.” When Oliver turned to grin at him, Connor placed a hand on his cheek and pulled him in for a kiss. They broke apart and turned back to watch their son sleeping peacefully in his crib. They watched Charlie reach an arm out in an odd stretch and held their breath when he gave a yawn so big it seemed like he was going to wake himself up. They stood side-by-side, with one of Oliver’s arms around Connor’s waist and Connor’s fingers holding onto the sleeve of Oliver’s shirt, until the early dawn gave way to morning and their son woke up in earnest.

Oliver reached down to pick up Charlie and cradle him to his chest before his soft crying gave way to something louder and Connor offered to go get a bottle ready. He turned back in the Charlie’s doorway to watch his husband gently soothe their son and Connor realized that Oliver was right. The traditions of his family and Oliver’s family were not as important anymore. Their new family was what mattered and they needed to start creating their own traditions for themselves. As the bottle was warming up, Connor placed a quick call to his mother, who was just as understanding as Oliver predicted, and then wondered how soon was too soon to introduce his son to the Thanksgiving wonder that was _A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving._

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed this shameless Coliver Thanksgiving fluff. 
> 
> Happy Thanksgiving everyone! (And happy Thursday to all non-American readers. Only one more day until the weekend!)  
> -Jules xoxo
> 
> [tumblr](http://ramblesandreblogs.tumblr.com/)


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